Illuminate Education Acquires Online Assessment Reporting System (OARS) by Red Schoolhouse Software

For Immediate Release

Irvine, CA (May 11, 2016) — Illuminate Education, a leading education company that creates tools educators can use to promote student and educator success, today announced that it has acquired Online Assessment Reporting System (OARS) by Red Schoolhouse Software. OARS is an online data management system that is being used by 100 school districts in California.

“Illuminate and OARS both have reputations for being instructionally focused. It is this focus and a mutual commitment to student and educator success that make this acquisition so exciting,” says Lane Rankin, founder and CEO of Illuminate Education. Both Illuminate Education and Red Schoolhouse Software were pioneers in the early 2000s in the area of helping schools use data effectively. They are both respected by school districts as being focused on education and the success of students and educators, rather than just focusing on creating online tools. “It is hard to find companies that share a passion for education and understand that success of students and educators is the primary focus, not just making cool tools,” says Rankin. “Red Schoolhouse Software staff is comprised of leaders who are forward thinking in education. For this reason, we welcome them to the Illuminate team.”

Rankin and his team of educators have been committed to creating tools that promote student and educator success for some time. In 2002 they created one of the first data and assessment platforms, Data Director. For the first time, this innovative system allowed teachers to use real time assessment data to identify areas that needed instructional focus. As the use of data became more prominent in school districts, it became clear schools needed a system for all their data. Student information systems, data and assessment management, and special education individual educational plans were all dependent on similar data. To meet this need, Illuminate Education was founded in 2009 to encompass all of these functionalities in one platform.

Founded in 2000, Red Schoolhouse Software has been on a similar path in the data and assessment arena by successfully helping schools make sense of their data. “Our team looks forward to joining the dynamic Illuminate team. We are excited to introduce features of Illuminate to our current OARS districts that will increase their capabilities through expanded technology enhanced items, for online assessments, extensive reporting capabilities, single sign on for our districts using Google, and more” says Axel Shalson, founder of Red Schoolhouse Software.

ABOUT ILLUMINATE EDUCATION

At Illuminate Education we intend to be your school district’s comprehensive provider of cloud-based products and services offering innovative data solutions. Serving the K-12 education market, our turnkey data-focused software and services currently assist 1,300 school districts across the United States.

Illuminate Education Contact: Jim Yang, +1.650.823.1178, jyang@illuminateed.com